


Till Tomorrow

by Punrise



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Badass!Beverly Marsh, Bullying, Coffee Shops, Friends to Lovers, Gaslighting, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn, Sonia Kaspbrak's A+ Parenting, Underage Smoking, eventually, shitty parenting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-07-03 22:49:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15828516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Punrise/pseuds/Punrise
Summary: Sparing a glance outside, Eddie can already see the familiar head of curls sitting on the bench just outside the coffee shop. It’s somewhat of a habit now, the two of them sitting out there to eat their lunch together and they’ve been doing it for months, even in the rain.Eddie most definitely has a crush on the guy from the rival coffee shop on the corner that he shares his lunch break with. The only problem is that they've never talked, despite sitting on the same bench for months. With a push from his friends, Eddie finally gathers the courage to talk but he doesn't expect anything to come from it and, in thinking that, he's completely wrong.But now he has to deal with potential young love, high school, Henry Bowers, and his mother at the same time, and if that's not overwhelming then what is?





	1. Just You and I

Eddie leans his head against the cool, steamy glass of the bathroom mirror with a quiet sigh. He’s still half asleep, even after his morning shower, and he’s not really looking forward to the six hour shift looming ahead of him. It’s never fun to work on a weekend but, on the other hand, it’s never fun to spend a whole day with his mother, so he considers work to be the lesser of two evils. It’s not like he hates his job, it’s just the customers that come with it; a lot of them are entitled, rude and demanding and he gets shouted at a lot for even the smallest mistakes. Still, he’d rather be shouted at by a stranger than his own mother — it’s easier to shrug off then.

He sighs again and straightens up, covering his mouth as he yawns. He grabs his uniform from where he’d tossed it on the bathroom floor before his shower and quickly puts it on, looking more presentable already. Then he blots at his hair with his towel until it’s not dripping anymore and quickly parts and combs it, using a little bit of gel so that it stays in place for most of the day. He brushes his teeth, sprays on deodorant, and then he’s good to go. Heading back to his room, Eddie grabs his backpack and shoulders it as he’s making his way downstairs.

Laid out on the kitchen counter is a glass of water and three pills next to it with a handwritten note from his mom. He chugs the water, pockets the pills and crumples up the note, tossing it in the trash without even reading it. He never did read the notes she left out for him on weekends, and never takes the pills either. He doesn’t need to; they don’t do anything for him. He tries to get out of it as much as he can but sometimes that’s impossible and, as of late, his mom has started to watch him take them in the morning and it’s becoming harder and harder to avoid swallowing them. Eddie hates himself when he does it, but what else can he do? He’s sixteen which means that he can’t move out yet and, even if he could, how would he afford that? So he’s stuck and he hates it but it’s only two more years before he can leave his mom and Derry in the dirt and go to college.

Eddie can’t wait until then. Bill and Stan will come with him, they’ve been planning on going to the same college ever since they were children, and they’ll work hard and party hard and have the time of their lives. Then, once they’re done, they’ll get a place together and they’ll start their respective careers and maybe find someone special and everything will work itself out. It’s something that Eddie thinks about frequently, especially when his mom is angry or when he’s forced to take his pills. _Just two more years_ , he tells himself almost constantly, _just two more years and it’ll all be fine._

After grabbing his lunch from the fridge, he grabs his bike from where he leaves it propped against the back porch and wheels it around to the front of the house. He straps on his helmet and then hops on, pedalling down the street. Eddie stops once, when he passes a bin and tosses the pills he was supposed to take; he knows better than to do it in his own house and he doesn’t exactly think that it’s safe to just chuck them onto the street. Reaching the coffee shop, he hops off and wheels his bike over to the bike rack where he pulls his lock out of his bag and makes sure that nobody will be able to steal his bike.

“Good morning, Eddie,” His manager smiles as he enters the shop, helmet tucked under his arm and backpack hanging off one shoulder. “Go and drop your things in the staffroom and then you can start with cleaning off the tables.”

“Sure thing.” He nods, heading towards the staffroom. He puts his bag and helmet in the small cloak room they have attached to it, his lunch in the barely running mini fridge, and clocks in. He has a quick drink from the water fountain, runs his hands over his uniform to try and rid it of any wrinkles, and then heads back out into the shop.

For a Saturday morning it’s not too busy. Eddie does as he’s told and cleans off the tables, throwing away the rubbish that the customers were too lazy to chuck away themselves. He wipes down the table tops and then, once the tables are clean, he mops the floor. It’s boring work and he’s not paid much at just over $6 an hour, but it’s money at the end of the day, and he gets him out of the house so he can’t really complain too much.

“Eddie, jump onto the register like a good kid would ya?” His manager asks when he’s done cleaning. Eddie nods. “Thank you very much.”

He returns the mop and bucket to the cleaning cupboard and washes his hands before he switches over to manning the cash register. He greets the customers with a smile and engages in small talk as he takes their orders and rings them up. For him, this is the worst park of his job. Here, he’s right in the firing line. If they have a complaint they’ll come to him, if they’ve had a bad day they’ll take it out on him.

When twelve o’clock rolls around and Eddie’s given permission to go on his lunch break, he does so filled with relief. Whilst it hasn’t been a completely horrible shift, it hasn’t been the best either and he’s been shouted at a grand total of three times all before midday: he was too slow, he didn’t talk loud enough, and the barista had forgotten to put marshmallows on someone’s hot chocolate. Sure, maybe the first two were his fault, and true too, but he still doesn’t appreciate it. It’s all part of working in retail he guesses, and at least it’s helping to thicken his skin.

Sparing a glance outside, Eddie can already see the familiar head of curls sitting on the bench just outside the coffee shop. It’s somewhat of a habit now, the two of them sitting out there to eat their lunch together and they’ve been doing it for months, even in the rain. The only thing is that they barely talk; Eddie’s too scared to and the other boy doesn’t really seem interested in conversation, focused on his phone most of the time. It’s almost torture in Eddie’s eyes. A friendship with this guy is one conversation away but they’re both unwilling and it’s not that Eddie doesn’t want to be friends ( _he does. Oh God he does_ ) but he just doesn’t know how to go about it. Bill and Stan are getting impatient now and honestly so is Eddie. But he’s not going to ask this guy out; he doesn’t have a crush on him (although Bill and Stan will swear blind that he does). He just wants to be friends.

He tears his gaze away from the window, aware of how creepy he must look, and heads into the staffroom. He gets his lunchbox, takes a drink from the water fountain, and heads outside, taking his seat next to ‘Bench Guy’ as Bill and Stan call him. Today he’s not even greeted with a hello and takes that as an indication that today is not his day to try and strike up a conversation. He just sits there and eats his lunch as the other boy stares down at his phone with the corners of his lips pulled down, wishing that he had more confidence or that Bench Guy would just talk for once.

Disappointment leaves a bitter taste in his mouth as eventually Bench Guy walks away, heading to the coffee shop on the corner. Eddie washes it down with a sip of his juice carton, but finds himself staring at the door that the boy disappears through for a bit longer than necessary.

Okay so maybe he has a crush on Bench Guy but that doesn’t mean he has to, or that he’s going to, do anything about it.

///

The sun beats down on Eddie’s legs as sits on the yellowing grass in Memorial Park. His shift had ended two hours ago and he had hurried home to get changed before meeting Bill and Stan here. They always hung out at the park on Saturdays weather permitting. If not then Stan’s basement did just fine, curled up under blankets with mugs of tea or hot chocolate and a bookshelf full of board games that they were trying to make their way through.

“How long is Bill going to take?” Stan whines. “It’s been ten minutes already. Ten minutes to buy three ice creams.”

“There’s probably a really long queue or something,” Eddie shrugs, taking a sip of the homemade lemonade Stan had brought with him, courtesy of Mrs. Uris. It was good stuff, tasted the same as when they were kids. “Patience young grasshopper.”

“Oh shut up,” Stan sticks his tongue out at Eddie, and the two burst into laughter. “Seriously, though, maybe one of us should run up there to check on him. Make sure he hasn’t gotten lost or anything.”

“Nah,” Eddie shakes his head, spotting Bill’s figure in the distance, walking towards them slowly but surely. “He looks like he’s trying to win the egg and spoon race on sports day, don’t you think?”

“Totally,” Stan snorts, then he turns to face Bill and shouts. “Dude if you don’t hurry up all we’ll be left with is a soggy cone!”

“Go fuck y-yourself, Uris!” Comes Bills retort but he does speed up and reaches them in a couple of seconds. They each take an ice cream, having all chosen the same flavour (rocky road of course), and then they scoot back to their original positions and start to eat them.

“So, Eddie,” Stan says between licks. “How was Bench Guy today?”

It was the same question every Saturday and usually just the same answer of ‘fine because that was all he ever seemed to be. There were a few days when he was clearly happy and others like today where he was seemingly angry, but it never changes much. Sometimes he’ll smoke three cigarettes in the span of their lunch breaks and sometimes he’ll smoke none. Eddie has learned to tell when Bench Guy is having a bad day but he’s still too much of a coward to ask him why. He has to wait for that, he tells himself, a complete stranger asking about your day would be pretty creepy (although is Eddie a complete stranger? He doesn’t know what he’d class himself as).

“He seemed kinda pissed off,” Eddie shrugs. “Didn’t even say hello. I assume he had a really bad customer just before or something like that.”

“I’m guessing you didn’t speak to him then?”

“The dude looked like he would’ve killed me if I’d tried!” Eddie laughs. It was true; if looks could kill then Eddie wouldn’t be sitting here right now. “Maybe tomorrow? I don’t know.”

“You need to m-m-make a move s-soon,” Bill says. He’s laying on his side, propping himself up on one elbow as he eats his ice cream. “Or you’re going t-t-to regret it.”

“I don’t want to make a move Bill,” Eddie protests but it’s a lie and all three of them know that. “I don’t even know if he swings this way, man. Besides, it’s not as if he’d even date me if I asked him to, not that I want to, but he’s way too cool for me.”

“How so?”

“I don’t know. He smokes and stuff,” Eddie takes a bite of the ice cream cone, chewing it for a while as he thinks over his next words. “You’ve seen him at school. He hangs around with Beverly Marsh. I heard that she threw rocks at Henry Bowers once. That’s badass.”

Eddie wishes that he’d been there to see that. Much like wishing he has the courage to talk to Bench Guy, he also wishes that he had the courage to stick up to Henry Bowers. School was already a shit show for Eddie, Stan and Bill and it was probably always going to be. But Henry Bowers just made it all worse; he had them fearing turning every corner, had them confined to the lunch room because at least in the lunch room there’s adults to stop him from bullying them, and they wouldn’t walk home alone. It was an unspoken rule.

“She might be badass but she’s also dating Ben Hanscom,” Stan says. “Surely he’s got to mellow her out a bit? He’s so calm and quiet, it’s hard to believe that they’re actually dating.”

“Ben’s cool,” Bill says, wiping at his ice cream covered face with a napkin that Stan hands him. “I had to p-partner with him on a huh-history project once. He’s real s-s-smart and I agree with what Stan says. I mean they’re c-complete opposites so I bet t-tthat they balance each other o-out.”

“Maybe,” Eddie shrugs. “But even so that doesn’t mean that she still can’t get up to cool shit especially with Bench Guy. He looks like he’d throw rocks at Henry Bowers too. Maybe when we’re dat—” he cuts himself off, shaking his head. Bill raises his eyebrows at him and Eddie flips him off before resuming his speech. “Maybe if we date then he’ll fight him off for us.”

“Right that’s it,” Stan stands up, brushing himself off. “You’re talking to him tomorrow, Eddie and if you don’t then I’ll track him down on Facebook and tell him you want to go on a date with him,” he holds up a hand to stop Eddie’s inevitable protests. “No. Look, you clearly want him so you have to make it happen. It’s been literal months and you’re still on the same terms with him when you first met. So either you talk to him and you become friends and date and then get married and adopt two kids and a dog or I message him and then you become friends and date and then get married and adopt two kids and a dog. Which is it going to be?”

“Okay first off,” Eddie says, standing up as well. “We’re not going to date or get married and we’re definitely not adopting two kids and a dog and secondly I don’t know _how_ to talk to him.” There's no point denying that he doesn't like Bench Guy anymore; it's pretty clear he does.

Bill joins them on their feet, studying Eddie for a second before he speaks. “J-just start with a ‘hey, how has your day been?’ it’s n-n-not that hard, Eddie. I’ll m-m-message him too if y-y-you won't s-speak to him.”

Both of them are looking at him expectantly and he sighs, running a hand over his face. They’ve got him backed into a corner now because Eddie doesn’t doubt, not for one second, that they’ll find the guy on Facebook and message him on Eddie’s behalf and Bench Guy will never want to be friends with him after that. It’s talk or nothing.

“Okay fine, I’ll talk to him tomorrow,” Eddie says, both hating and loving his friends at the same time — it was a cruel threat that they had made, but it was the kick that Eddie needed to get his shit together. “But it’s just going to be a normal conversation, okay? I’m _not_ gonna ask him out or anything.”

"At least not yet." Stan smirks, nudging Bill slightly and earning a middle finger from Eddie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!  
> [tumblr](http://pun-rise.tumblr.com)


	2. Don't Sink, Just Swim

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for shitty parenting and implied child abuse.

Eddie wakes up the next morning with his promise echoing loudly in his mind. He turns off his blaring alarm clock with an ungraceful smack of the snooze button and sits up, rubbing his eyes. He tries anything in the next half an hour to get the forget the though, listening to incredibly catchy music whilst he gets ready, trying to recall his lines from the third grade play, trying to come up with a good introduction for an essay he needs to start soon. Nothing works, and all that’s left running through his mind when he abandons those efforts is _oh my God, I’m gonna do it! I’m gonna talk to him!_ And that’s great, but _how_ is he going to talk to him? That’s the only part that Eddie’s truly freaking out about.

What if it’s not as easy as Bill’s suggested ‘hey, how has your day been?” what if Bench Guy just shrugs him off and doesn’t answer? Then what will he do? Never eat lunch on that bench again? Eddie has never been good at dealing with rejection and, if he does get rejected by the guy he’s been silently crushing on for months now, well, he’ll just have to shut himself in his room and never come out again. He’ll quit his job and find one on the other side of town and then, just to make sure he doesn’t have to see Bench Guy again, he’ll enrol himself in online classes and never step foot on school grounds from then on.

Eddie Kaspbrak being dramatic about everything? More likely than you think.

Unusually, when he heads downstairs his mom is sat at the breakfast table, a steaming mug of coffee in front of her. Eddie nearly groans, but he’s able to catch himself in time and instead just heads over to the fridge to grab his lunch, not even saying hello. Once he’s done that and slips his lunchbox into his backpack he’s halfway out of the back door when his mom clears her throat.

“Haven’t you forgotten something, Eddie?” She asks.

“No?” He frowns, turning around and stepping back into the kitchen. The back door closes behind him and he watches, frowning, as his mom gets up and leaves the kitchen. She returns with his pill bottles and he realises, with a sense of dread that he hasn’t taken his pills. He looks over to the counter where they’re usually laid out and finds it empty.

“I didn’t set them out this time to see if you were really taking them,” she says and there’s anger in her eyes that makes Eddie’s chest tighten. “If you were then you would’ve notice that they weren’t there, wouldn’t you Eddie-Bear? Care to explain why one of my friends saw you chucking them in a bin yesterday?”

“Mom I have to get to work,” he shifts uncomfortably, too panicked to come up with an excuse. _Fuck_. How had he been caught? “I really have to go.”

“You’ll take these first,” she thrusts the pill bottles towards him and he takes them with slightly shaking hands. There’s no point in arguing with her and he crosses the kitchen to fill up a glass with water. He takes them one at a time, wincing as they go down and hating that he’s forced to do this. “Thank you, Eddie. You can go now, but you’ll have a lot of explaining to do when you get home.”

And he does go. He pushes open the back door with more force than necessary and flies down the porch steps, barely breaking his sprint as he grabs the handle bars of his bike. He jumps on, helmet still in the basket in front, and pedals like hell because he needs to get away from that damn house. He hates his mom and her constant need for him to take pills and he hates himself for going along with it. He was fine with it when he was younger; took them of his own accord and never complained but after his fateful conversation with Mr. Keene at the pharmacy when he was eleven, the pills became harder and harder to stomach.

 _Head medicine._ That’s what Mr. Keene had called his inhaler. _His medicines were placebos_. His ma had been lying to him the whole time.

He reaches work with half an hour to spare, lock up his bike and sits on the bench with his head in his hands and tears pricking the corners of his eyes. He’s going to be in trouble when he gets home and he just can’t be bothered with it anymore. _Two more years_ , he tells himself, _just two more years._ But now two years seems like an eternity and it’s not comforting him in the slightest.

“Hey, are you okay?” Eddie looks up to see Bench Guy staring down at him. Beverly Marsh is stood next to him and they both are wearing almost identical expressions of concern.

“I will be,” Eddie nods and he tries to ignore that shakiness of his voice. In all of the chaos Eddie had managed his goal of forgetting his promise, although now it doesn’t seem like much of an issue beside dealing with him mom. “It’s just some home stuff.”

“I get that,” Beverly says, her lips pressed into a line. “When does your shift start? You don’t look like you’re in a state to work.”

Eddie looks at his watch, “Uh, twenty minutes-ish. I’ll be fine, honestly. I need the money so...”

“Dude I really don’t think that you should go in there,” Bench Guy says. “Look, I’ll just pop in to your shop and tell your manager that I found you throwing up in the street and that you need the day off even though you’re insisting on coming in.”

“It’s nice of you to offer but I can’t take the day off, really,” Eddie protests. A day off means going home and he can’t go back just yet. He stands up, readjusting the straps of his backpack before heading towards the shop. “I, uh, I’ll see you at lunch.”

///

He’ll admit that he’s a little more distracted than usual whilst working, but Eddie manages not to mess anything up entirely. Oddly enough he doesn’t get shouted at once before his lunch break and that’s surprising to him. Even on his best days he gets shouted at but maybe the customers can tell that he’s having a bad day and that he’s trying his best? Probably not, and it’s probably just luck, but it’s nice to think that that’s the reason either way.

Bench Guy is already there when Eddie exits the shop, and he smiles at Eddie as he takes his seat. Eddie smiles back, his heart starting to race and his cheeks warming up. This was it, he guessed, the time that they have a proper conversation. Something more than just ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye.’ Eddie takes his apple out of his lunchbox, polishing it off on his apron before he takes a bite.

“So what was that about this morning?” Bench Guy asks. “You looked pretty upset dude. I thought you were going to start crying on me.”

“Home stuff,” Eddie says around a mouthful of apple. “My mom’s kind of a bitch,” he feels horrible for saying that but he’s not wrong. “I pissed her off yesterday and now I’m in trouble.”

“That sucks,” Bench Guy says, pulling a packet of poptarts out of his pocket. He offers the packet to Eddie. “Want one? Nothing like a little bit of sugar to make you feel better.”

“No thank you,” Eddie shakes his head. “I’m not supposed to eat stuff like that and I had an ice cream yesterday so I probably shouldn’t overdo it. I’ll be bouncing off the walls and then I’ll be in even more trouble. Mom doesn’t like it when I eat too much sugar. It’s bad.”

“Your mom still polices what you eat?” He raises his eyebrows, shaking his head slightly too. “That’s crazy. Your mom sounds like an evil witch.”

“She’s not far off,” Eddie snorts. “And she always has and will for however longer I’m stuck in her house. Hopefully only two more years, but knowing my luck…” he trails off, not even wanting to think about what would happen if he was stuck there for any longer.

“Bev’s dad is an asshole too. Maybe they can get married and go live in an evil lair somewhere,” The other boy says, frowning down at his poptarts. “What’s your dad like?”

“Dead.”

“Oh shit. I’m sorry dude I didn't —”

“It’s fine,” Eddie waves Bench Guy’s apology. “I was five. I barely remember him anymore. I just know what my mom and his friends have told me about him.”

“Still sucks, though,” The boy shrugs. Eddie nods in agreement. “So, uh, when does your shift end?”

“Two,” Eddie answers, tossing the core of his apple into the bin beside the bench. “But I might see if I can work a little longer so I don’t have to go home as quickly. I’m in so much trouble over a stupid thing and I just can’t be bothered being yelled at,” He kicks a stone away from the bench with a sigh but then it hits him just who he’s talking to, and how weird this must be for him. Their first time having a proper conversation and Eddie’s whining about his mom. “Uh, I’m really sorry for being—”

“Don’t apologise, Eddie, you’ve done nothing wrong,” Eddie blinks as Bench Guy says his name, frowning slightly. The other boy lets out a loud laugh at Eddie’s expression and gestures to his uniform. “You have a name badge, dude, don’t look so confused. I’m not some creepy stalker, I promise.”

“Oh yeah,” Eddie laughs, his cheeks feel as if they’re on fire and he looks down at the tips of his trainers. “Yeah, of course.”

“I’m Richie. I don’t like to wear my name badge — something about old men calling me by name just creeps me out,” Bench Guy says and Eddie runs the name around in his mind. Richie. It suits him. “Anyway, look, I get off at two as well so meet me out here and we can go to the Aladdin, or something, so you don’t have to go home straight away. Bev will tag along and I’ll pay, don’t worry about it. Pals?”

Eddie almost chokes on the sandwich he’s eating, glancing at Richie to see the boy smiling at him, waiting for an answer. _FUCK_. Stan and Bill will kill him if he says no, but he’s only just started talking to this boy even if they’d known each other for months. Still, going to the Aladdin is better than working a couple of extra hours and they both serve the same purpose of avoiding his mom for longer. He can’t believe that this was all it had taken — being sad. If he’d known that, Eddie would have turned up to work near tears a long time ago. There were plenty of shitty mornings that he’d had.

“Uh, yeah sure. Pals.” Eddie says finally, his heart pounding in his chest as Richie offers Eddie his hand and they shake on it.

“Right, well I’m a little late so I’d better head in,” Richie says, standing up and tossing his empty poptart packet into the bin. “See you at two, Eddie.”

“See you at two, Richie.”

///

Eddie was practically buzzing with nerves when 2:00PM rolled around. He promptly headed into the staffroom, gathered up his things and clocked out, pulling his hood up as he left the shop. It has been raining for the past hour and Eddie’s pretty sure that it’s a bad omen about what’s waiting for him when he gets home. He’s barely been stood outside for more than thirty seconds when Beverly approaches him, wheeling her bike along with a lit cigarette hanging out of her mouth.

“Rich says that you’re joining us at the Aladdin,” she says, breathing out a cloud of white smoke that swirls into the air. “He said you didn’t want to go home or something? I get that.”

“My mom’s mad at me,” He shrugs. “And it was Richie’s idea. I was just going to work a couple of extra hours but the Aladdin is definitely more entertaining than that. I’d choose it over work any day.”

“Ditto,” Beverly chuckles, pulling her coat tighter around herself as a cold gust of wind blows, driving the rain with it. “God it was so nice yesterday, how can the weather change so much in a day?!”

Eddie shrugs, and shuffles a little backwards so that the smoke from Beverly’s cigarette isn’t in his face so much. He’s aware that his asthma isn’t real and that his inhaler isn’t either, but his hand absentmindedly moves to the front pocket of his backpack where he still keeps it just in case. It’s the only medicine that he’ll still take with no fuss; it helps and he knows it does. Whether it helps an actual issue or something in his mind, he doesn’t care. He just knows that when he feels as if he can’t breathe, his inhaler is the only thing that makes it better.

“What’s up, fuckers!” Richie yells as he strolls towards them, making Eddie jump a little. God, if his mom knew that he was hanging out with these two, she’d have an aneurysm. Richie swipes the cigarette from between Beverly’s fingers, taking a long drag of it. “Needed that. I’ve left mine at home.” He says as he hands it back, patting Beverly on the head.

“I swear to God, Tozier,” she growls. “I’m gonna kill you one day.”

“Well if you could hurry up and put me out of my misery then that would be great,” Richie grins. He hasn’t pulled his hood up, Eddie realises, and his curls are dripping. “Now, are we going to the Aladdin or no?”

“Well grab your bikes then,” Bev says to Eddie and Richie. “Unless you want to walk.”

Eddie unlocks his bike and puts down his hood for just a second whilst he puts his helmet on. That’s another thing he’s going to get in trouble for when he gets home because he has no doubt that his mom saw him pedalling down the street with it still in his basket. At this point, the list is never ending. His mom will be yelling at him for hours on end about all the things he’s done wrong in the past couple of days. It’ll be sort of entertaining, he guesses, but he’s also scared out of his wits.

He pulls out his phone as he’s waiting for Richie to sort himself out. He quickly texts his mom, telling her that he’s going to the Aladdin (although with Bill and Stan) and then scrolls through the absolute chaos in the group chat that had exploded when he text practically the same thing to them, only it was the truth. Chaos was the only way to describe it; a multitude of gifs and emojis and congratulations. He sends back a thumbs up emoji and quickly thanks them before pocketing his phone again and setting it to silent, just so he knows that it has already been done and he doesn’t have to worry about forgetting it once they get to the Aladdin.

The ride there is anxiety inducing. Beverly and Richie insist on going of fast as they can with no regard to the fact that neither of them are wearing helmets and the road is wet and slippery with the rain getting so heavy at one point that Eddie can barely see. He’s the last to pull up the the Aladdin and lock his bike into the rack but the others don’t tease him for it, not like Bill and Stan would have.

He slips out his phone as they enter the foyer, seeing the many missed calls he has from his mom. He knows that he should call her back quickly, knows that she’s probably just worried about him riding in the rain, but he doesn’t. He’s too tired to be putting up with her at the moment and so he just sends her a quick text saying that he made it to the Aladdin safely and joins Richie and Beverly in the queue for tickets and snacks.

Richie insists on paying for their tickets, but Eddie refuses to let him pay for his popcorn too. He buys them instead, a small for him and a large for Beverly and Richie to share between them. Beverly ends up paying for the drinks, a large soda each for her and Richie and a bottle of water for Eddie. He’s pushing it with the popcorn already; his mom would have a fit if she knew and he tries to convince himself that he doesn’t care about it, but he does. Even without his mom’s input he knows how bad sugar is for you.

“Are you okay with horror films, Eddie?” Richie asks. “I probably should have asked you before I booked the tickets but if you don’t want to see a horror then we can just go and exchange them.”

“No,” Eddie shakes his head. “A horror film is fine.”

As it turns out, trips to the Aladdin with Beverly and Richie are completely different to those he takes with Stan and Bill. Where as they sit they and actually watch the film, Richie and Beverly do anything but and surprisingly, Eddie doesn’t even mind. He watches them throw popcorn at each other, trying to get it in the other’s mouth, laughs with them every time that something stupid and cliche happens, and giggles with them when a jumpscare catches Beverly off guard and she spills some of the popcorn into her lap.

“That was great,” Eddie admits as they’re leaving, their coats still wet from the downpour earlier. “Well, I mean, the film was okay but I just… I had a great time, so thank you. You really didn’t have to do this considering that we barely know each other.”

“We’ve been hanging out on the same bench for a while,” Richie shrugs. “That means we’re friends.”

“Well, yeah, but I didn’t even know your name until a couple of hours ago,” Eddie says. Butterflies are flitting around in his stomach and for a second he fears that the buttered popcorn is going to make a reappearance. “I just want to say thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Bev grins, wrapping an arm around Eddie’s shoulder and pulling him into his side in an awkward kind of hug. “I have to go ‘cause my dad’s expecting me home, but good luck with your mom Eddie.”

“Thanks,” Eddie laughs. “I’ll need it.”

“I’ve gotta go too,” Richie pouts. He claps Eddie on the back. “If she gets too bad just chuck water over her, huh, that’ll sort the witch out.”

And then the pair leave and Eddie is left alone in the foyer clutching an empty popcorn bucket wishing that he didn’t have to go home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and for all of the support shown on the first chapter! I really appreciate it!  
> [tumblr](http://pun-rise.tumblr.com)


	3. Always Tryna Shape the Way I Act

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: gaslighting because sonia kaspbrak is the Worst™

Eddie pushes open the back door, his heart pounding and a lump in his throat. He hadn’t checked his phone on the way home for the fear of how many missed calls he he had from his mom and that was a bad move. She wasn’t, as he expected, waiting for him in the kitchen but he could hear the sound of the TV from the living room. He’s not sure if she heard him come in, and briefly debates just sneaking past the living room and hiding up in his room until tomorrow but he knows that he’ll get into even more trouble that way and it’s just not worth it. He needs to get it over and done with.

“Hi mom,” he says, leaning against the door frame. She’s watching some stupid game show, but her head snaps around as soon as he starts to speak and her lips curl into a smile that makes him uneasy. “I’m really sorry I didn’t answer your calls but—”

“Sit down, honey,” his mom points to the chair opposite her and he does what she says. “We need to have a talk. Now, why did you throw your pills away, Eddie?”

“I don’t know,” Eddie shrugs. He knows full well; they’re bullshit. He can’t tell her that, though, not unless he wants her to fly off the handle. “I’m really sorry mom.”

“You know that I only give them to you to help you, right?” She asks and Eddie nods. “You’re sick, Eddie, and they make you better. Do you think the doctor would let me give them to you if they didn’t help?”

“No.” _Yes. Maybe? Mr. Keene says Dr. Handor is afraid of you, Ma. Most people are afraid of you in Derry. Still, Dr. Handor could get into a lot of trouble if it was all found out, right? So maybe..._

“Well then why haven’t you been taking them?” She leans forward in her chair, gaze sharp. Eddie looks down at the carpeted floor. He doesn’t answer, desperately trying to wrack his brain for an excuse, but coming up with nothing. “Eddie. Are you okay?”

“Yes,” _no_. “I just… I don’t know why I didn’t take them. I- mom, you’ve never even told me what they’re for.” He doesn’t dare look up. He doesn’t want to see her reaction.

“You’re sick.” Is all she says and Eddie sighs. That’s all she tells him — _you’re sick Eddie, really sick. You’re fragile —_ but if he’s sick then why doesn’t he feel sick even when he doesn’t take his medicine? Exactly what illness(es) has he got? Why did Mr. Keene tell him he wasn’t sick if it wasn’t true? He wouldn’t just do it for the fun of it. He wouldn't, even if his ma was trying to make him doubt that.

“Yeah, but what with?” Eddie blurts out. He looks up at that, registering the surprise that flashes across her face which quickly settles into anger. He drops his gaze then, a sick feeling in his stomach.

“You’re sick,” she repeats. “It doesn’t matter what with, Eddie, all that matter is that you’re sick and you need to keep taking your medicine like I tell you to.”

“Okay,” he says quietly, not wanting to push this any further. He shouldn’t have said it in the first place. “Can I go now? I have homework I need to finish for tomorrow.”

“You have to promise to keep taking your medicine, alright?” His mom says. Eddie nods. “It’s not going to help you if you don’t take it. I’m going to trust you to take it without me forcing you one more time, but, if you’re caught chucking them once more then I’m going to have to stand there and force you to take it like I did this morning. You don’t want that, do you Eddie-Bear? You’re sixteen. You can do it yourself.”

“I promise I will,” he says, standing up. He needs to find another way of disposing of them. Somewhere that people won’t see him doing it and in a way that his mom will never bee able to find out. “Please. Can I go?”

As soon as his mom gives her permission for him to leave he does so. It wasn’t as bad as he’d been expecting but it sure as hell wasn’t enjoyable, and she hasn’t seemed to pick up on the things he thought she would like not wearing his helmet or riding in the rain. His mouth had almost gotten him into even more trouble, though, and he was surprised that his mom had stayed as calm as she had. Still, she has a long way to go until she is even a decent parent and Eddie doesn’t know if she’ll ever reach there — she seems to get worse as he gets older and gains more independence. She’s going to be a nightmare when he’s in college, he already knows, but at least it’ll be easier to deal with her there.

He locks his door to his room, flopping face down onto his bed. He wants to sleep but he knows if he does then he won’t sleep tonight and it’s a school night which, in return, means that he needs to sleep tonight in order to be able to pay attention. He’s not like Bill who can survive on barely 5 hours of sleep if needs be. He wishes he was but anything less than the recommended eight hours and he’s practically a zombie. Combining that with a hatred of coffee and a refusal to drink soda or any drink that has caffeine in it, he _needs_ his sleep.

His phone starts to buzz and he rolls over onto his front, pulling it out of his pocket. He doesn’t even check the caller ID as he doesn, knowing that it’ll be either Bill or Stan calling to see how it went at the movie theatre.

“So how’d your date go?” Stan’s voice fills Eddie’s ear and Eddie smiles slightly. “Who asked who on it?”

“It wasn’t a date, Stan, there were three of us. Beverly Marsh was there too,” Eddie answers. “It was just so that I didn’t have to go home and face mom ‘cause she’s mad at me. It was Richie’s idea.”

“It can be a date with three people. Beverly was just a third wheel,” Stan says and Eddie can picture the smirk he has on his face right now. “Anyway, are you okay with your mom? Do you need to sleep here tonight? My parents won’t mind.”

“No I think it’ll be okay, thanks for the offer though,” Eddie says. “It’s just over me not taking my medication. Apparently her friend saw me chucking it away yesterday on the way to work. So it sucks but she’ll probably forget about it in a week or two as long as she thinks I’m still taking it.”

“What are you going to do then?” Stan asks.

“I don’t know,” Eddie shrugs even though Stan can’t see him. “I guess I’ll just have to find somewhere else to throw it away. Maybe when I’m at work? But I don’t know if I’ll get in trouble if I get caught? They’ll think it’s fishy if I’m throwing away meds I’m supposed to need and I don’t exactly want to have to explain all of this to my manager.”

“I mean that’s fair enough,” Stan says. “Can’t you just, like, flush them down the toilet or something? Would that work?”

“I don’t think so,” Eddie shakes his head, although it is a good idea. “She’d get suspicious if I took my meds and then ran off to the bathroom. She’d probably think that I’m being sick or something and then it’s off to Dr. Handor again.”

Stan sighs and the two fall silent, trying to wrack their brains for any ideas. Eddie wants to have the balls to just turn around and tell him mom that no, he’s not going to take the meds because he doesn’t need them, but he doesn’t have the courage. Not whilst he’s living under her roof. And it sucks, having to be sneaky about disposing of pills that he doesn’t need, but it’s just his life and without risking his mom’s wrath, there’s nothing else he can do about it.

“We’ll figure something out tomorrow,” Stan says. “We can brainstorm at lunch and I’m sure that Bill can come up with something — he’s always been able to. Wasn’t it his idea to dump them on the way to work?”

“Yeah and look where that got me,” Eddie laughs. “Nah, I’m kidding. It’s not his fault, and it’s fine, really. I’ll manage to figure something out.”

“You’re sure?” Stan asks,

“Yeah I’m sure,” Eddie says. He’ll figure something out eventually even if it means having to take them for a few days whilst he thinks of an idea. Stan and Bill don’t need to be dragged into this anymore that they already are. “I’m gonna go. I’ll see you at school tomorrow?”

“Mhm. See you tomorrow.”

Eddie hangs up, placing his phone on his night stand as he stares up at the ceiling and tries to think of ways to deceive his mom.

///

  
By Monday morning he hasn’t come up with anything, and he reluctantly takes the pills before sitting down to breakfast with his mom. He eats a slice of toast and an apple and works on an algebra worksheet that’s due third period. He’d completely forgotten about it until Stan had mentioned it this morning in the groupchat and he was rushing it so much that he wasn’t even sure if he was doing it right. Still, he has it mostly done before he has to head out the door and he’s sure he can complete it under his desk during first or second.

He opens the door to Stan and Bill and shouts a goodbye to his mom over his shoulder. The walk to school is filled with quiet discussion, and Eddie fills in the pair about his afternoon with Richie and Beverly. To his annoyance they insist on calling it a date even though it wasn’t and they tease him about it almost the entire way. If they weren’t so close to a road, Eddie would’ve punched them both by now, but he knows better than to mess about on the sidewalks. His mom had drilled it into him since a young age; you walk on sidewalks, you don’t play, and it was something that he still heeded because there were so many reckless drivers in Derry that all it took was a light shove at the wrong time and, well, you were a goner.

“Can one of you give me your sheet for algebra so I can copy the last two questions?” Eddie asks as the school building comes into view. “I honestly forgot about it. I’ve got most of it done, and I’ll be discreet so nobody sees me.”

“As long as I get it back before algebra starts then sure,” Stan says, stopping to unzip his backpack and hand the sheet to Eddie who accepts it with a quick thanks. “I mean it was a pretty straight forward task.”

“We’re not a-a-all maths w-whizzes Stan,” Bill teases, digging an elbow into Stan’s side. “S-share some of y-y-your brains would’ya?”

“I’ll swap some maths brain for some of your writing brain,” Stan winks as they ascend the steps in front of the school and walk through the double doors. “I think we have enough time to head to the library, Eddie, if you can hurry and copy it?”

“Sure thing.”

They all sit around one table, Bill and Stan whispering quietly to each other whilst Eddie copies what he needs. He has time to check his other answers against Stan’s and he’s surprised at how many he actually has right. He doesn’t bother changing the ones he has wrong — there’s no point in trying to trick the teacher that he’s somehow excelling in algebra, because there’s no way he’ll be able to keep it up — and they’re out of the library in five minutes.

They stop at Bill’s locker for him to grab some books and then they’re on the way to English. Just as they’re about to turn a corner, a hand clamps down on Eddie’s shoulder and he lets out a surprised squeal, heart rate speeding up as he prepares for what he’s sure is going to be a tongue lashing from Bowers. But when he turns around, he comes face to face with Richie and pulls away from him, giving him a light shove.

“You’re such an asshole!” He pouts, relieved that it wasn’t Bowers but still angry that Richie had made him jump like that. “I thought you were Bowers!”

“Bowers is outside terrorising some kids,” Richie shrugs. “Calm down, Spaghedward, it’s only me. Besides, you would’ve known if Bowers was coming from a mile off. Everyone would sprinting to get somewhere safe.”

“He’s such a slimeball,” Stan says, wrinkling his nose. “I’d love to give him a taste of his own medicine one day.”

“Wouldn’t we all?” Richie asks, wrapping his arms around Eddie’s shoulders, leaning his chin on the top of Eddie’s head. Eddie doesn’t miss Bill’s smirk. “Anyway, fine lads, where are you off to?”

“English,” Eddie answers. “Where are you off to?”

“Bev and I have got Chemistry,” Richie says, straightening up and wrapping an arm around Bev’s shoulders. He gives them an exaggerated wink. “In both ways.”

“Shut up Trashmouth!” Beverly yells, elbowing him hard in the ribs. “Anyway we have to go ‘cause we’re not even supposed to be going this way, Richie just wanted to say hi.”

Richie blushes, something that makes the butterflies in Eddie’s stomach riot. But it’s short lived because Richie glares at Beverly, waves goodbye and then turns around and leaves. Once he’s out of sight, swallowed by the crowds that are starting to swarm the hallways closer to the bell ringing, Stan bursts into laughter, quickly followed by Bill. Eddie glares at both of them, starting to walk again before they got swept up in the oncoming tidal wave of students.

“Holy s-s-s-shit, Eddie!” Bill grins, clapping his shoulder. “He’s t-totally into you! That j-j-just proves it!”

“Shut up,” Eddie groans. “No it doesn’t! He was just being friendly, that’s all."

“You’re so deep in denial that it would be funny if I wasn’t rooting for you.” Stan slings his arm around Eddie’s shoulder as they enter the classroom.

“Do you value our friendship, Stan?” Eddie raises his eyebrows. “Because you’re toeing a line here.”

Stan brings his arm back to his side, taking his seat beside Eddie. “Maybe,” he shrugs. “But why are you so resistant to the truth?”

“I’m not, Stan, I’m just being realistic,” Eddie sighs as the bell rings. He lowers his voice as the teacher appears and starts teaching almost instantly. “Just because he’s being friendly doesn’t mean that he’s into me, okay?”

“He wasn’t being friendly,” Stan points out with one of his signature eye rolls. “He was flirting with you, dumbass.”

“If he was flirting with me then he was flirting with Beverly too,” Eddie says matter-of-factly. “And I doubt he was considering that they’re best friends and she’s dating Ben.”

“You’re i-impossible, Eddie,” Bill whispers from Eddie’s other side. “Like S-Stan said: he was f-f-flirting with you. If you c-c-can’t see that then m-maybe you need to try o-o-on his glasses cause y-you're blind.”

“I hate you both.” Eddie huffs, letting his head fall onto his arms which were crossed over his desk. It was going to be a long English class if these two kept it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> [tumblr](http://pun-rise.tumblr.com)  
> 


	4. You've got a friend in [us]

It takes what feels like a year for lunch to roll around. Eddie shoulders his backpack, hurrying out of his French I class and towards his locker where he, Stan and Bill always meet before heading to the lunch room. He shoves most of his books in the locker whilst waiting for the others. As he’s closing the door, his eye catches the pill bottles stashed at the back of his locker, _for emergencies_ , his mom would tell him, and he slams the door shut.

“Woah, b-buh-bad class?” Bill asks, raising his eyebrows at Eddie. “I know F-F-French is awful, but don’t t-take that out on your l-l-luh-locker.”

“I didn’t mean to slam it that hard, honestly,” Eddie shrugs, giving Bill a small smile. “French wasn’t actually that bad today. We pretty much just did exercises out of the textbook.”

“The best c-c-classes,” Bill grins. “You can j-just mess about for the w-whole time and then do t-t-t-the work when you get home. It’s g-gruh-great! As long as you have s-someone else in there t-to talk to.”

“Which I didn’t have,” Eddie sticks out his bottom lip. French was the only class that he didn’t have with either Bill or Stan and he didn’t have any other people in the class that he could talk to. Well, that he felt comfortable talking to. “Anyway, where the hell is Stan? He’s usually here before you.”

“I dunno,” Bill shrugs. “He’s p-probably just been kept up or s-s-something. You know w-w-what teachers are l-luh-like.”

It takes another five minutes for Stan to join them, slightly out of breath. He had been kept up like Bill had suggested; the class as a whole hadn’t done well on a test (although of course Stan had aced it), and the teacher kept all of them behind to yell at them. Stan was turning red in the face by the time that they reached the lunch room, ranting about how unfair it was and Eddie agreed with him. If he had aced it why should he have to suffer? As they push through the doors, Eddie, glancing at the food line, is glad that he brings his own food and he remarks that as they take a free table.

“Why would you want to wait in a line that long for crap food anyway?” Stan wrinkles his nose. “It’s not worth it. I’d rather go hungry.”

“Plus it’s not even nutritious stuff,” Eddie says as he empties his lunchbox onto the table, unwrapping his sandwiches from the foil his mom had wrapped them in. “It’s all frozen pizza and overcooked pasta in barely-a-sauce. I mean it’d be different if it was all fresh and good tasting food, but it’s not. So no thanks.”

“Eddie, n-n-not everyone is as h-health conscious as you,” Bill smiles as he unwraps a chocolate bar and Eddie rolls his eyes. “Frozen pizza i-i-is good, dude. You should t-truh-try it sometime.”

“Mom says that frozen food is full of chemicals,” Eddie says. “So we don’t eat a lot of it. The Kaspbraks are all about the fresh—”

“I’m going to stop you right there,” Stan holds his hand up, shutting Eddie up. “Finish that sentence if you want, but I won’t be responsible for your loss of dignity.”

Eddie kicks Stan lightly under the table, not surprised when Stan kicks back. Soon enough it’s a full blown war underneath the table and Eddie starts to wonder whether or not they actually deserve to be in the 10th grade. They’re all just extremely lanky kindergartners with better motor skills — there’s practically no difference other than that.

Once everything’s settled down and they actually get back to eating their damn food, the topic inevitably falls onto Richie. Eddie knew it would happen at some point; they’d shut up during classes, but, now that they can talk without getting in trouble, only a fool wouldn’t have seen it coming. Even the mention of his name makes butterflies flit in Eddie’s stomach and he realises that he’s got it bad. Especially now that Richie is actually acknowledging his existence and actively seeking him out to talk, like what had happened this morning. But he’s not going to do anything unless Richie shows interest first and if he doesn’t then Eddie won’t be the only one with an unrequited crush in the world. He’ll just join the international league of love-sick teenagers.

“So w-what exactly h-h-happened on Sunday?” Bill asks. “You never t-told us.”

“Well, mom was angry at me Sunday morning so I turned up to work kinda bummed. I sat on the bench and Richie and Beverly approached me,” Eddie says. Stan had already heard the whole thing last night, but neither Eddie nor Stan mention that. “They asked if I was okay then tried to convince me to go home ‘cause I looked rough. I said that I didn’t need to and that I’d probably pick up a few extra hours anyway because I didn’t want to go home. Then boom. Movie theatre invite.”

“And w-what h-h-happened at the m-movie theatre?”

“Uh, we watched a film?” Eddie frowns. “I mean we were kinda those kids that you hate. Y’know the ones who kept messing around and not really paying attention, but it was a good time.”

“And B-B-Beverly was the third wheel?” Bill has a smirk on his face, and Eddie hates it.

“No. If anything I was the third wheel,” Eddie protests, chucking a tin foil ball at Bill. “If I didn’t know any better I would’ve thought that Richie and Bev were dating, honestly. They act like a couple, not that there’s anything wrong with it, but it’s kinda weird I guess. Ben didn’t come. I think Beverly said something about him working, but it would have been nice to see Ben and Beverly together.”

“You’ll have to tell us if they balance each other out,” Stan says. “Don’t look at me like that, Eddie.”

“Well then stop insinuating that I’m now part of their group or something, because I’m not,” He’s perhaps a little too forceful, if the brief look of surprise on Stan’s face is any indication. “We hung out once and he said hello this morning. That’s pretty much it. Doesn’t make us great friends and it doesn’t mean that I’m going to be invited to go on every outing with them.”

And Eddie knows that he’s being way too sensitive and defensive about the whole thing, but he can’t help it. He doesn’t quite know what to do with all this. He’s never had a crush like this before and the mix of new feelings is overwhelming and kind of scary. He wants to ignore it, but Bill, Stan and Richie are all making this difficult. How is he supposed to ignore it when the guy he likes keeps talking to him and Eddie’s own friends won’t shut up about it? There’s literally no escape and it’s already overwhelming him despite only happening for two days.

///

The house is empty when Eddie gets in from school. There’s a note on the fridge to say that his mom was out with a friend and that she wouldn’t be back until the evening and it fills Eddie with relief to know that he’s not going to have to face her for at least another couple of hours. He sits down in the living room, doing his homework in front of the TV, something that he’s never done before and it’s good. He’s able to multitask pretty well, and it doesn’t take him that much longer to complete his homework than it would at his desk in his room.

He leaves the living room shortly after, though, and is halfway up the stairs when his phone buzzes in his pocket. He slides it out, answering it before pressing it to his ear.

“H-hey Eddie!” Comes Bill’s cheerful voice. “Since it’s a pretty okay d-duh-day weather wise, I w-was wondering if y-y-you wanted to go to the q-q-quarry? We don’t have to s-swim. I’m just bored. Stan’s coming.”

“I’ll have to call my mom quickly,” Eddie says. “She’s out at the moment and you know what she’ll get like if I leave without letting her know beforehand, but I’m sure I’ll be able to come. I’ll text you.”

His mom ends up saying yes, although he has to be back for 7:30 which he’s fine with, and he texts Bill, grabs his bike and pedals most of the way there. He leaves his bike at their usual spot, joining Stan and Bill’s, and walks up the trail to where they like to spend their time. He can hear them long before he can see them, and when he finally emerges they wave and beckon him over. As he sits down cross legged he notices the game of _Scrabble_ that they’re currently playing.

“I won!” Stan pumps a fist in the air as Eddie sits down. “We said we’d start again when you turn up, Eddie, so it’s fair.”

“Thanks.” Eddie smiles, elbowing Bill to cut off his stream of how Stan always wins and it’s not fair.

They end up playing _Scrabble_ for most of the time they’re there because _of course_ they would sit at the quarry and play board games; they’re those kinds of kids. Eddie thinks that it’s a lot better than ending up like Bowers, the biggest bully in Derry and also constantly getting into trouble, and so he’s not too bothered about what other people think about it. It’s a common theme in Henry’s taunts but Stan says he’s just jealous because he wouldn’t be able to correctly spell anything over three letters. Bill had laughed so much at that that his drink had come out of his nose.

Stan won, Eddie came in second, beating Bill by just one point. It was true that Stan always won with his massive vocabulary that was never put to use for anything but Scrabble, but it was fair game for second place. There’s been plenty of times that Bill has completely thrashed Eddie and vice-versa. Today, though, it was an extremely close call but Eddie had come out on top. That meant that Bill had to jump into the water which wasn’t as much of a punishment as it was on cold days (of course Eddie never participated in this, and the others didn’t make him even if he was the loser — he wouldn’t hear the end of it from his mom. Besides, jumping into water on a cold day was just downright stupid anyway, even without his health concerns).

At 7:00 they start to head back and as they’re cycling up his street, Eddie notices that his mom’s car in parked in the driveway, indicating that she was home. They stop just short of his house and wheel their bikes around to the side so that Sonia wouldn’t see them. She didn’t particularly like either of Eddie’s friends, and she wouldn’t hesitate to tell them o if they were on her property.

“I can ask my folks if you can sleep over,” Stan offers, similar to yesterday. Eddie’s tempted. His mom isn’t mad at him for anything specific anymore — they’d gotten that out of the way yesterday — but this morning had still been uncomfortable. “They won’t mind, honestly. They love you, Eddie.”

“It’s okay,” Eddie shakes his head. “Mom’s probably made dinner anyway, and I wouldn’t want it to go to waste. I’m really grateful for the offers, though, Stan, it really does mean a lot and if I do ever need anywhere to stay, I’ll call you.”

“I know m-my folks aren’t p-puh-perfect,” Bill says, eyes on the ground. “But they’re p-probably better than your m-m-mom and our door is o-open any time.”  
  
“Thanks,” Eddie beams, propping his bike up against the wall and embracing the pair of them. “It’s nice to know that I’ve got you two to watch my back. I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”

“Bye.” They say at the same time before walking down the drive and pedalling off.

Eddie pushes open the back gate with a sinking feeling in his stomach, already feeling the tension in the air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just a lil chapter of the bois being friends more reddie stuff will be happening next chapter!!  
> (also my friends and i often play board games outside during the summer or whenever there's good weather. it's a great time y'all should try it if you're into that stuff)  
> [tumblr](http://pun-rise.tumblr.com)


	5. A Place to Start

Standing in the dark kitchen, Eddie can hear the TV playing from the living room. That means that his mom is home and he tiptoes out of the kitchen and into the hallway, stopping just short of the living room door. It’s wide open, and he’s careful not too make too much noise as he tries to peer around the door frame and see where his mom is. She’s in her chair as usual, but her eyes are closed and she’s snoring and Eddie lets out a quiet sigh of relief as he quickly hurries up to his bedroom. She’ll wake up later in a panic because she _missed dinner and you need to eat, Eddie-Bear, you’re a growing boy_ and ask him why he didn’t wake her up but Eddie doesn’t really care about that. He’ll just tell her that she looked tired and, _like you always say, Ma, we need our sleep_ and she’ll more than likely let up. He wonders how much trouble he’ll be in if he tells her the truth, that it’s because he can’t stand her, but he decides against it almost immediately because the answer is a lot and he’d be grounded for years.

He flops down into his desk chair, unsure of what to do with his evening. He’d completed his homework earlier, although he does have some reading that he needs to do, and Stan and Bill were likely at dinner right now which meant that they wouldn’t be around to piss about on Skype with. In the end he settles for scrolling mindlessly through his social medias, not feeling guilty at all that he was choosing that over _The Great Gatsby_ (it was an alright book in his opinion, but nowhere near one of his favourites). Bill and Stan join him on the group chat, although they can’t Skype due to various reasons, but it’s a nice enough evening and nothing special. He makes himself a sandwich for dinner and eats it up in his room, something that he was usually never allowed to do.

Around 9:00PM he heads out of his room, a towel and his pyjamas slung over his arm as he makes his way towards the bathroom. He’s just pushing open the door when he hears his mom’s footsteps coming up the stairs and hurries to shut and lock the door, turning the water on so that he doesn’t have to face her just yet. There’s a soft thud on the door and the sound of his name, but Eddie ignores it. He takes a while in the shower, mainly on purpose, and also in drying off and getting dressed but after over an hour spent in the bathroom, he knows that he needs to leave. So he does, and he’s barely a step out of the door when his mom leaves her room.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” She asks on cue. “I was terrified when I woke up and saw the time! I thought that you hadn’t come home! I was just about to call the police and report you as missing, Eddie, you can’t do that—”

“You looked tired, mom,” Eddie lies, leaning against the wall. He’d predicted this whole conversation. “You always tell me that we need our sleep, but I’m sorry that I made you panic. I’ll wake you up next time, I promise. Also I made myself dinner so don’t worry about that. I’m gonna head to bed early tonight I think,” and then, reluctantly, “are my pills downstairs?”

“They are,” Sonia nods, seemingly happy with Eddie’s answers. “Can you bring me a glass of water when you come back up? Thank you, Eddie.”

That could have gone a lot worse Eddie thinks as he heads downstairs. Just like he’d thought, his pills are lined up on the counter and he looks over his shoulder before dumping the pills down the sink and washing them away. It gives him a sense of triumph as he watches them disappear down the plughole, and he finds himself wishing that he could do it more often. He needs to find a way to get his mom off his back at meds time, something easier said than done. Remembering his promise to his mom he grabs two glasses from the cupboard and fills them with water, stopping by his room on the way to his mom’s. She’s already asleep when he places the glass on her nightstand.

Eddie falls asleep not long after.

///

He wakes up a couple of hours later to his phone almost vibrating off of his nightstand. He squints at his alarm clock and frowns when he sees the time; who would be calling him at 3:41AM? The vibrating stops and he settles back down, only for it to start again when he gets comfortable. He lets out a groan, shifts into a sitting position and grabs his phone, answering the call and pressing the phone to his ear, ready to chew out Stan or Bill for waking him up at such an ungodly hour.

“What?!” He whisper yells, glaring at the opposite wall. “You’d better have a good fucking reason as to why you’re waking me up at 3AM.”

“Chill, Eds,” A soft, familiar voice that is neither Stan’s nor Bill’s says and Eddie narrows his eyes. How did —? “I got your phone number from the curly haired kid. He’s in a couple of my classes,” he says and Eddie both wants to throttle and kiss Stan. “I called you earlier but you didn’t pick up.”

“Don’t call me that! And of course I didn’t. I was asleep,” Eddie says, leaning back against the headboard. “Anyway, Richie Tozier or not, you’d better have a good reason as to why you’ve woken me up.”

“Well, I can’t sleep and I was wondering if you’d want to go on a walk with me,” Richie says and Eddie scoffs. “No, I’m being serious. Usually Bev will go with mwe but she’s fast asleep I guess ‘cause she’s not answering her phone. And it’s not as if my parents would enjoy a family walk at this time of night, so they’re out. I tried a couple of my co-workers too but they pretty much just told me to fuck off.”

“Yeah and I don’t blame ‘em.”

“Aw come on, Kaspbrak,” Eddie can practically see Richie pouting. “You know you want to. Nothing like a nice walk around Derry to clear your mind, right?”

“You can’t be serious,” Eddie sighs. And he does want to go on the walk, but it’s not as simple as just walking out of the front door for him. He’d have to go out of his window which was dangerous in itself, and even more so dangerous: what if somebody saw him and told his mom? The woman seemed to find out about every little thing he did and this would be no exception. He’d be locked in his room. “I can’t, Richie, I’m sorry but it’s not worth it. My mom—”

“Oh shit, yeah, I forgot about her,” Richie cuts him off. “What if we hung out but you didn’t have to leave your room? Stan told me, jokingly of course, that there’s a tree in front of your window. I can climb in. I’ll be as quiet as I can and hell, we don’t even have to talk, I just want some company.”

And Eddie really doesn’t want to do this. It’s a similar situation to sneaking out, dangerous and stupid and just asking to be caught, but he doesn’t want to say no because he really does like Richie and maybe this could be his chance to maybe drop a hint or _something_.

“Okay,” Eddie sighs eventually. “But you have to be really quiet, okay? My mom will absolutely freak if she catches us in here and you don’t want that at all.”

Richie agrees and Eddie sits on the edge of his bed, facing the window. He knows that he’s going to regret this, he already kind of does, but he’s going to be dead tomorrow both from the lack of sleep and, probably, from getting caught. But he can’t think about that right now because Richie Tozier is on his way over and Eddie can barely wrap his mind around it because they’ve gone from barely even acknowledging each other to this in only a couple of days.

He opens his window as soon as he sees Richie cross the gardern, pressing a finger to his lips as the boy squeezes through the gap. Whilst Richie makes more noise than probably necessary, Sonia doesn’t seem to stir and Eddie quickly closes his window, turning to Richie who’s taken a seat at Eddie’s desk. Richie stares back at him, bright eyed and wide awake. He’s not even dressed in pyjamas and Eddie raises his eyebrows, crossing his arms over his chest. He hasn’t slept. Bill always teased him about being the mom friend in the group, but he didn’t think that that was a bad thing really.

“Have you even tried to sleep, Richie?” He asks, and the other boy nods. “You don’t look like you have, and why are you still wearing yesterday’s clothes if so? Surely you’d be in pyjamas and —”

“Geez, Eds, you’re not my parents,” Richie laughs, spinning around in the desk chair. “What does it matter to you? But, for your information, I took a four hour long nap after school and so when I laid down tonight to fall asleep, I couldn’t. I’m not in my pyjamas because I wasn’t about to bike through Derry with them on ‘cause that’s weird. Look, if you want to go to sleep then feel free and I’ll just yeet out of the window whenever I feel like it, but—”

“I’m not going to go to sleep whilst you’re in my room,” Eddie shakes his head. He freezes for a second, thinking that he heard a noise in the hallway, but it must have just been his imagination because he doesn’t hear it again. “And you’re not staying for long. We both have school tomo— in a couple of hours, and I’m not kidding when I say that my mom will freak if she catches us.”

“Chill,” Richie holds his hands up in a mock surrender. “I was just joking when I invited you on the walk anyway. Decided to see how far I could take it. I didn’t realise that I was calling your number instead of Bev’s, scout’s honour, and when you picked up it was probably more of a shock to me than it was to you.”

“So why did you turn up then?”

“Why not?” Richie says. “It’s not like I have anything better to do, is it? Other than actually sleep, of course, but I don’t really think that’ll happen tonight.”

Eddie sighs, sinking back down onto his bed. Richie Tozier is something else, that’s for sure.

///

Richie ends up staying past 5:00AM but Eddie hurriedly shoos him out when he realises the time. He’s falling asleep and his mom will be in to wake him up at 6:30AM on the dot; he can’t risk getting caught just because he fell asleep and didn’t tell Richie when to go. He watches as the dark haired boy pedals off into the distance and finds himself wondering how Richie was going to sneak into his own house. From what he could tell, though, Richie’s parents were chill and they probably wouldn’t have any problem with him coming in in the early hours, just as long as he was safe. Even just thinking about that makes Eddie start to long, to wish that his mom could be like that even if it’s just for a week.

He gets a couple more minutes of shut eye before his mom comes in and he’s forced through his boring morning routine. He gets up, dressed, eats, takes his pills, and then he’s walking between Bill and Stan on the way to school, wishing that he could be going anywhere else but there. He doesn’t really pay attention to the conversation between the other two and it isn’t anything important; they’re both still waking up as well and there’s a long period of sleepy silence between them.

“You okay, Eddie?” Stan breaks the silence, stifling a yawn as they approach the school building and suddenly Eddie remembers that he has a bone to pick with the boy.  
“No, I’m not okay,” He says and he’s joking for the most part but Stan still stops walking, a frown on his face. “Why did you think it would be a good idea to give my number to _Richie Tozier_ and _why_ did you think it would be a good idea to tell him that I have a tree in front of my window that he can climb up?!”

Stan flushes a bright red, looking to Bill before he answers. “He asked for your number and I thought that you wouldn’t mind, you know? I was just joking about the tree thing, I—”

“I’m not mad, Stan,” Eddie cuts him off, feeling slightly bad. “But guess who called me at 3 in the morning and ended up in my bedroom?!”

“N-no way!” Bill almost squeals, clapping Eddie on the back. He moves to Stan, holding up his hand for a high-five. “Nice o-o-one, Stanny! Now, do y-y-you think you c-c-could give my n-number to Audra Phillips or—”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yikes sorry for leaving this so long. at first i just didn't have time and then when i did i just couldn't get the words out of my head properly, y'know?
> 
> also i think you should read [Obstacles](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16011731) bc i'm actually pretty proud of it :) 
> 
> thank you for reading!!!!  
> [tumblr](http://pun-rise.tumblr.com)  
> 


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